TalkAwhile - The Folk Corporation Forum

Chris Leslie has just announced that he is releasing a new album, recorded during lockdown, entitled Fiddle Back - available from his website: http://www.chrislesliemusic.com.

I like his albums so I'll be sending for this.

I'm curious to hear him do a solo version of A Sailor's Life.

I bet it’s the clean version!

I think you're thinking of the Sailor's Alphabet!

I can confirm it’s a really interesting version. I love it.

Oh flipping heck....I’m a muppet.

Excellent!

My copy's on its way (along with Turquoise Tales which somehow passed me by) but I'm away from home for a few weeks so I'll not have a chance to hear it for a little while.

Nice little homecoming treat though!  :)

It’s a lovely album x

Enjoyed listening to this last night. I think the fiddle is recorded quite closely on some of the instrumentals so you can hear the scrapes etc which makes for a very intimate listening experience. There are some interesting instrumentation and sound effects on a few of the tracks, including Sailor's Life.

 ;D ;D ;D

@Will S
Thank you, ordered it today.

Can I just say, this is wonderful?

Chris has sometimes been accused (including by me) of softening Fairport's sound and taking them in the wrong direction. I have never previously bought any of his solo albums but for some reason I thought I'd give this one a go.

It arrived yesterday on a day when I was really struggling physically (hideous cervicogenic pain compounded by a migraine) and was feeling somewhat depressed and anxious as a result. This music could not have been more perfect  for those circumstances, drawing me in and allowing me a modicum of relaxation. But it is no soft easy listening album. It is a hugely imaginitive and robust work (though there is admittedly one song which I find a tad on the nose lyrically). Much of it is instrumental and it occured to me that, if you wrapped a rhythm section around it, a very fine successor to Expletive Delighted would result. Whisper it softly but the album may actually be a better and more satisfying folk/folk-rock album than Shuffle & Go, and has left me hankering for Expletive Delighted 2 as Fairport's next release, though I do not expect it to happen.

This is a really fine record to have been made in the current circumstances and has made me see Chris in an entirely different light. I would be interested to know if his previous album has a similar feel. I may be tempted to go back to the well.

On the strength of comments above, I've ordered it...

I bought his last one 'Turquoise Tales' and I liked it a lot. This one arrived yesterday and I've listened to most of it. Once again, I find it it a highly enjoyable collection. As an instrumentalist and folk singer, Chris Leslie is, in my opinion, one of the best.

I’m giving this a spin on a dull and rainy Tuesday. It’s a great record, and shows a side of Chris that doesn’t always come out on the Fairport records. The instrumentation supports the songs rather than dominate them, and the fiddle playing and singing are top notch.  I’d forgotten just how talented he is!

That's he's an absolutely brilliant fiddler has never been in doubt.  It amazes me that he's spent so much of the last quarter of a century not fiddling (at least not in his main employment).

Having been the one to start this thread, I very belatedly actually got hold of a copy this week, and am enjoying it.  But does anyone else feel that the final tune (Fiddle Back) seems to be cut off early as the final chord (or whatever - I'm not a musician) comes to an end?